Photo by Thomas Hawk
Glen Park dweller Beth reports from down south:
First, there’s the down escalator. It’s been broken since sometime in February. First, it was just blocked off with the usual barrier gates, but I knew something was up when they actually built a wooden barricade around the top and bottom of the escalator. Then, maybe a week after that, they finally put up signs explaining the mess:
“The main drive assembly was out of alignment and needs to be rebuilt and replaced. This is a major undertaking that will require an extensive amount of precision work. This means the escalator will be out of service until July 2011. We are working hard to complete the work sooner, if possible.”
Apparently the large gears in the assembly can only be manufactured by one out-of-state company, and it takes time.
Somehow, BART is able to find a bright side to all this: Taking the whole thing apart will allow them to identify any other worn-out bits and replace them. “We hope that once this work is complete, it will result in many more years of trouble-free operation.”
And then there are the delays Glen Park riders are experiencing on East Bay-bound trains. I contacted BART spokesman Linton Johnson last week after noticing the trains have been running slow and stopping between Glen Park and 24th for weeks. He told me that one of the trackside computers on that span has become convinced that there may be a train on the tracks. When that happens, the computer tells all the other computers that trains can’t pass through. Makes sense — except that there’s no train there, most of the time.
So, for now, the computer system is stopping trains in the tunnel, and then they’re switched over to manual mode so they can keep going. The result is a lot of slowly grinding through the tunnel, and lots of jerky stops and starts.
“Why this is happening, we don’t know yet. We have all our resources trying to convince that trackside computer that the world is fine, everything is hunky dory,” Johnson said. “Hopefully, we’ll have it resolved soon.”
The BART website posted about the glitchiness earlier today. Hang in there, Glen Parkians!
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The North Berkeley station had the same problem last year. Apparently all of BART’s elevators rely on one critical gear that can only be machined one at a time by exactly one firm, and it takes them six months to do it.
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Erik Reply:
March 31st, 2011 at 7:12 pm
s/elevators/escalators/
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BBnet3000 Reply:
April 1st, 2011 at 3:35 pm
Yep. Right when I saw the mention of the escalator in this article I thought “another gear fiasco like North Berkeley”
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Same problem at Daly City BART – SF & East Bay bound platform up escalator has been out for months. Shouldn’t they just have these parts in reserve for inevitable breakdowns?
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I’m a daily M-F Glen Park BART rider and I haven’t found either of these issues to be all that bothersome. Noticed the delay between GP and 24th but it’s pretty minor, at least for this 7am commuter. Thanks for the explanations, though.
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The Glen Park BART escalator has been broken off and on since late last fall. They’d fix it & it would break down a couple days later. They’d fix it and it would break down again. And so on. At least they finally realized something was REALLY wrong with it. Bummer it’ll be the summer before its fixed but that’s BART for ya.
I did wonder about the slowdown between GP & 24th. Thanks for the update.
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“… and stopping between Glen Park and 24th for weeks”
Wow. That’s a really long time. Do they bring in food? Who knew that so many of our fellow citizens were living down there?
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